Let’s Talk Cannabis Culture: Part 2
What I Want the Whole World to Know About Weed—Plus How the Cannabis Cutie Brand Was Born Out of an Astrology Reading…From a Former NFL Athlete
We’re bringing cannabis education to the Light Culture podcast!
Check out the highlights of our discussion below, or CLICK PLAY listen to the full interview right here.👇
David: Why did you decide to be the Cannabis Cutie?
Tammy: I would say six months after I graduated I had a conversation with an astrologer by the name of Ricky Williams.
Ricky and I were going through my chart, and he said that I never think I’m smart enough, pretty enough, or have enough information prepared.
And I realized he was right. I would never lead with being cute in anything or believe that I'm smart.
So the Cannabis Cutie was born after that conversation. And then I executed the idea in November 2017.
David: So it’s become your identity.
You have a website where you have classes. You have a book club. You have all kinds of interesting videos and things that you're involved in.
And part of it is your connection with Snoop Dogg. You're going to be starting some kind of a program with him?
Tammy: Yes. So Snoop is a big part of cannabis. I would say he is the King of Cannabis. He's tied to the culture.
And he understands that there's a higher level of information that people need to know and understand. But he also knows that he's not the person that can deliver it.
And so he sees that in me. He is going to be the executive producer of a show where the plan is to educate the world on cannabis, the industry, business, and so much more.
David: If you were writing for the New York Times, how would you discuss cannabis?
Tammy: I would go to the basics. Let's talk about how it interacts biologically with our bodies.
Let's talk about how important plants and human relationships are. Plants have to make themselves desirable so that we continue to breed them, and so we've evolved over time together. That relationship is important.
Then, I would also come from the perspective of culture.
We're looking at the big business conglomerates who just got here, but we're not thinking about how this plant actually survived to get here in this hotbed of anti-weed belief.
But there were people in organizations that made sure that it did survive. People who kept it alive. And those are the stories that we need to hear.
David: I remember the stoners from the 60s and 70s, and Hip Hop, and that whole industry that was integrated with cannabis.
But today, it's a very different world. New consumers, new people, new community. So is there a way to combine or bring those two worlds together?
Tammy: I think there's a way to show that they're both important parts of the culture.
So when you think of Hip Hop, you think of how it was able to bring cannabis back to the mainstream conversation through Dre and Snoop.
Right now we have a lot of celebrities who are into cannabis. We should respect the value that they bring. They have huge fan bases and big platforms. They can help get us further over the line to legalization.
We have to accept that they're here. They can be a part of the culture.
Now, what is not part of the history and culture are the billionaires who probably profited off of people being imprisoned for this and now suddenly have a change of heart.
But when you talk about celebrity and hip hop, and music, and everything, all of that is already fully ingrained into the cannabis story.
David: You mentioned celebrities, and I saw in one of your videos that you discuss this all with regard to Justin Bieber coming into the space now.
You were saying that maybe it's not the coolest thing in the world, but it's probably important in terms of spreading the word about cannabis to a larger audience.
Tammy: Justin Bieber, he's never really shown that he's a pothead, if you will. So it's a bit confusing when he's like, “Oh, I have a weed brand.”
But what Justin Bieber did was directly connect himself to the culture.
So I think that's how we have to judge the celebrities that are coming in today. What are they doing to break down the stigma?
David: What about the quality of the products? A lot of people complain about celebrity brands.
Tammy: Yeah, that's a big problem. And that's just par for the course when you're not tied to the culture.
It's the risk that you take when you just come into cannabis and you're not fully tied in. You make bad products with bad marketing.
David: What about a billionaire that we are familiar with? Jay Z?
Tammy: You know, Jay Z is such a businessman. I think he's on that business side of cannabis.
I think people who are coming in for the business side are looking at the bottom line. They don't really care about the culture or putting out a proper product.
David: So you don't put him in your elite category.
Tammy: You know, I have not tried his flower, so I can't say. But I also don’t expect Jay Z to come out with the best flower, either.
David: Also, as part of your practice and Cannabis Cutie website, you have a book club? Which book got the most positive reaction?
Tammy: I would say that it was our first book, which was Smoke Signals by Martin A. Lee. And it's a lot of ink, but it is the most comprehensive review of the history of cannabis in the United States.
David: Did you find that people were particularly interested in that?
Tammy: Yeah. There's a lot of information.
Some of the stuff you read in there is mind blowing.
We have to constantly fight propaganda. When you look back in history, you see a pattern.
The next thing that's coming for prohibition, based on his book, is that they're gonna start associating cannabis use with communism.
David: I hope not. But it's hard to imagine, given that communist countries are so strict about drugs. It's not legal, as far as I know.
Tammy: Well, the narrative is that it's the communists that want our country and our people to be smoking cannabis.
David: Is Trump against cannabis legalization? I don't remember.
Tammy: He’s said nothing, but the political Right is going to be hard on cannabis and doesn't want it.
David: I think that's going to be a hard play for them because I'm sure a lot of Republicans smoke weed, especially the segment of them that are not in the cities.
Tammy: Our opioid epidemic is incredible, by comparison. And it's a physician induced epidemic. And it's killing, I believe, half a million Americans a year.
By comparison, no one has ever died from a cannabis overdose, although it may feel like you are going to in the moment.
So it's interesting to see that there's so much talk about the dangers of cannabis, but it's not killing anybody.
David: In some of your videos, you suggest that weed is actually helpful for sex.
Tammy: I had a really good conversation with a sex author and learned so much from a scientific standpoint.
Women are very complex organisms that our doctors can't seem to figure out. But we've learned that women have an abundant amount of endocannabinoid receptors in our uterus.
And then we’ve learned that cannabis can aid in a lot of issues with the uterus and sex.
Cannabis is also a natural aphrodisiac in many people's experiences…
David: So overall, if you had to make some predictions about the future, what would they be?
Tammy: You know, I'd like to say that we're five years out from legalization. But I think that’s just the beginning of the fight.
Right now, we have over 40 States with some kind of cannabis legislation. But when the Federal government decides that they're going to come in and they're going to tax, I think that's when you're going to have pushback.
People are going to ask “Why now? Why do you, the government, want part of our money when you've helped ruin a lot of lives and fought us through everything?”
And then I think that the propaganda, the Reefer Madness, is coming back. It's already started on a lot of local levels.
You have politicians saying that cannabis will kill your kids if you legalize it.
I think all that’s coming up.
David: Well ok, thank you for your insight, Cannabis Cutie. Thank you for living up to your name!
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